Salaries Dominate Nation’s $9 Trillion Dollar Annual Income

What Makes Up Americans’ Incomes?

February 2, 2015 from the National Center for Policy Analysis:

We all know the federal government taxes income, but income is much more than salaries and wages. The Tax Foundation has a new report by economist Alan Cole that breaks down Americans’ personal income and identifies which sources contribute most to people’s incomes.

In 2012, Americans reported a total of $9.2 trillion in income. By far, the largest source of that income was salaries and wages, which added up to $6.3 trillion and constituted 68.2 percent of the total.

Another big chunk of personal income is actually business income: as Cole notes, 95 percent of all businesses in the United States are “pass-through” businesses that file as individuals, and those businesses were responsible for $839 billion of personal income in 2012.

Cole makes an important point about capital gains and dividend income, which constitutes $883 billion of personal income. Because investment income is significantly smaller than labor income, Cole says increasing taxes on investments would do little to impact the federal budget, yet it would have a major impact on investment, which translates into lower economic growth and reduced saving.

A recent Tax Foundation analysis of President Obama’s plan to raise taxes on capital gains and dividends concluded that it would hurt families in all income brackets, reducing GDP and shrinking wages. Moreover, the tax hike wouldn’t even add to revenues — a dynamic analysis of the tax hike proposal finds that it would cost the federal government $12 billion.

Source: Alan Cole, “Sources of Personal Income,” Tax Foundation, January 29, 2015.

ISIS Burns Jordanian Pilot Alive

ISIS BURNS CAPTURED PILOT ALIVE by John HInderaker at PowerLine:

“Moaz al-Kasasbeh, the Jordanian pilot who was shot down and captured by ISIS, has been burned alive on video:

The footage, which is titled ‘Healing the Believers’ Chests’ appears to show the captured airman wearing an orange jumpsuit as a trail of petrol leading up to the cage is seen being set alight.

Flames are seen quickly spreading to the cage where they completely engulf the helpless pilot in images that are far too distressing to publish.

Jordan promptly announced that it would execute the six ISIS terrorists in its custody.

To a greater degree even than al Qaeda, ISIS has become an international symbol of pure evil. It carries on a constant recruiting campaign among the world’s Muslims, and while most, of course, are repelled by the group’s outrages, some are not. The territory ISIS controls has become a magnet for the demented, the power-mad and the simply evil. Its adherents are being sent back to their home countries around the world to pursue jihad. ISIS wants to rule the world. It won’t succeed in that objective, and one would think that an organization so crazed and so ill-attuned to the realities of governance must be inherently unstable, and can’t cohere for long. Perhaps that is right, but in the meantime, grave damage is being done.”

Please continue reading:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/02/isis-burns-captured-pilot-alive.php

Another Big Obama Lie……”5.6% Unemployment”

THE BIG LIE: 5.6% UNEMPLOYMENT….by Jim Clifton at Gallup

“Here’s something that many Americans — including some of the smartest and most educated among us — don’t know: The official unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Department of Labor, is extremely misleading.

Right now, we’re hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is “down” to 5.6%. The cheerleading for this number is deafening. The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.

None of them will tell you this: If you, a family member or anyone is unemployed and has subsequently given up on finding a job — if you are so hopelessly out of work that you’ve stopped looking over the past four weeks — the Department of Labor doesn’t count you as unemployed. That’s right. While you are as unemployed as one can possibly be, and tragically may never find work again, you are not counted in the figure we see relentlessly in the news — currently 5.6%. Right now, as many as 30 million Americans are either out of work or severely underemployed. Trust me, the vast majority of them aren’t throwing parties to toast “falling” unemployment.”

Please continue reading: http://www.gallup.com/opinion/chairman/181469/big-lie-unemployment.aspx